Sarah was diagnosed with breast cancer at 29 years old and subsequently found out she has a BRCA1 mutation. With two young children who may have inherited this increased risk of cancer, she has been a passionate advocate and supporter of Inherited Cancers Australia (formerly Pink Hope) since its inception. Sarah brings a background in corporate banking and events management and being a high-risk individual herself, she knows exactly what’s important to the Inherited Cancers Australia community.

A keen advocate for preventive health, Robyn began her connection with Inherited Cancers Australia (formerly Pink Hope) by volunteering & connecting with her local high-risk community back in 2012. She has a background in finance and more recently extensive experience in the Not-for-Profit preventative health sector. Robyn is a keen advocate for informed decision making around managing cancer risk. She is part of several research teams contributing to studies relevant to the hereditary cancer community.

Lisa's passion lies in making a meaningful difference in the lives of families throughout their high-risk and cancer experiences. A dedicated community connector, going above and beyond to ensure high-risk women's and their families' well-being. Her expertise and understanding of the Inherited Cancers Australia community make her an integral part of the team and empower her to effectively connect and engage with partners, showcasing her commitment to community development.

Carol believes in the power of storytelling and has always been passionate about creating meaningful content in the digital world. Having lost a family member to cancer, she understands the importance of being informed and supported within the community. Combining her healthcare background with her digital marketing expertise, she is well-versed in making medical information accessible through content creation. She became a part of the team in 2023 with a commitment to spreading our message far and wide.

Charlie joined the team in mid-2022 after becoming a mum in February 2022. Having lost too many people around her to cancer, Charlie believes strongly in the work and education that Inherited Cancers Australia provides to their community. Charlie has a background and passion for events and is hoping through her assistance with events, the reach and impact of Inherited Cancers Australia keeps growing and evolving.

Deborah has many years of management experience in various sectors, including retail, the medical industry, and communications. She was most recently Managing Director of MAX Solutions from July 2012 until December 2022. Prior to that, Deborah was CEO of Pacnet, Australia and New Zealand, an Asian-headquartered telecommunications carrier. Deborah is currently Chair of the HR and REM committee for Smartgroup, an ASX-listed company and has been appointed as an Advocate for the G20 Alliance for Empowerment and Progression of Women’s Economic Representation.

She is also a current member of Chief Executive Women and chaired the Membership Committee of that organisation from 2010 to 2012. Deborah completed her registered nurse training at St Andrews Hospital, Queensland and holds a Master of Management from Macquarie Graduate School of Management.

John joined the Inherited Cancers Australia (formerly Pink Hope) board because he never had the chance to meet his maternal grandmother, Joyce. He wants to celebrate the legacy of the generations of family and friends we’ll never know, and those beyond the reach of our immediate circles, by helping people navigate hereditary cancer, today.

Outside Inherited Cancers Australia, John advises private and public sector clients in relation to strategy, mergers and acquisitions, risk, innovation, and management. A lawyer by profession, John is the CEO of global boutique financial and strategic advisory firm, Pottinger. He is married to Beck and has a little girl called Scarlett, who wants to be a dancer or a teacher when she grows up.

Lidia is a dedicated financial leader and has extensive expertise in finance, strategy and governance and a deeply personal understanding of the challenges faced by individuals and families affected by cancer.  As part of the Inherited Cancers Australia board, she is aligned with the mission of promoting hereditary cancer awareness, education, and access to support services, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes and quality of life for those affected by cancer.

Driven by a desire to inspire positive change, Lidia is committed to fostering collaboration and innovation within the cancer community. She believes that by working together, we can create a future where cancer is no longer feared, and every individual receives the care, support, and resources they need to thrive.

Warren knows first-hand the profound impact hereditary cancer can have on a young family. He has supported his wife, Tarryn, through two separate breast cancer battles in her 30’s while raising their two busy young sons, Seth and Evan. These experiences, combined with similar experiences of his and Tarryn’s extended family, have cemented Warren’s steadfast belief in the importance of advocacy, advancing research, and being proactive in one’s own healthcare.

Outside of Inherited Cancers Australia, Warren is an experienced lawyer, corporate advisor, consultant, and investor, and is currently a director of Yellow Canary, a workforce compliance technology business. He is also a member of the ESG Council for Blackwattle Investment Partners, a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia.

Associate Professor Laura Forrest is a genetic counsellor and researcher in the Parkville Familial Cancer Centre, the conjoint clinical genetics department of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Royal Melbourne Hospital, Australia. A/Prof Forrest leads the Psychosocial Cancer Genomics research team in the Parkville Familial Cancer Centre conducting a health services and implementation science research program.

A/Prof Forrest holds a mid-career fellowship from the Victorian Cancer Agency (2021-2025), which funds a hybrid effectiveness implementation trial focusing on improving patient outcomes after genetic counselling and testing. Her wider research program examines the psychosocial implications for young people living with an inherited cancer predisposition, evaluates new models of care facilitating genetic testing, and develops and tests novel interventions that aim to improve outcomes for patients receiving cancer genomic information.

Dr Eryn Dow is a dual trained Medical Oncologist and Clinical Cancer Geneticist with appointments at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, in the Adult Genetics Service and the Youth Cancer Service. Before returning to SA to practice, she completed cancer genetics and oncology fellowships at the Peter MacCallum Cancer. She is an honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer with the University of Adelaide as well as the coordinator of advanced training for Clinical Genetics with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. She is principal investigator on several clinical trials, and a member of the eviQ cancer genetics reference committee.

Geoff Lindeman, a clinician-scientist, is Joint Head of the Cancer Biology and Stem Cells Division at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) and a medical oncologist (breast cancer) at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Royal Melbourne Hospital. He is an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the Department of Medicine, Royal Melbourne Hospital, University of Melbourne.

His laboratory is studying molecular and cellular regulators of normal breast development and events that go awry that lead to breast cancer. His group identified the culprit cell that gives rise to breast cancers in women with a faulty BRCA1 gene, leading to the international BRCA-P breast cancer prevention study.

Dr Joe Dusseldorp is a reconstructive plastic surgeon. He completed his specialist training through the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and graduated with honors from University of Sydney Medical School. Joe’s main interest area is breast reconstruction that is designed to restore a patient the normality of a full life. Joe also offers a range of innovative treatments for breast reconstruction (including the DIEP flap) and for many of these techniques, this is the first time they have been offered in Australia. His commitment to providing his patients with options that are not just up to date, but are at the leading edge of surgical practice, is reinforced by strong collaborations with innovators in all of these fields, locally and internationally.

A/Prof James Lynam was diagnosed with a BRCA2 mutation at the age of 40. He is the current Head of the Medical Oncology Department and a practicing Oncologist specialising in Brain, Genitourinary and Gastrointestinal malignancies at the Calvary Mater Hospital Newcastle. He has worked at the Calvary Mater as a senior clinician since 2014. Since completion of his Fellowship he has been active in clinical trials and drug development and is the Principal Investigator of multiple trails spanning Phase I to III. He is a member of several committees within the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and is the immediate past Chair of the Medical Oncology Advanced Training Committee which oversees Medical Oncology training in Australia and New Zealand. In addition, he is the Medical Oncology Representative on the Scientific Committee of the TransTasman Radiation Oncology Group (TROG), is a member of the Testicular Cancer Scientific Advisory Committee and the Bladder Cancer Scientific Advisory Committee at the Australian and New Zealand Urogenital and Prostate Cancer Trials Group (ANZUP). He is the Deputy Chair on the Executive Committee of the Medical Oncology Group of Australia (MOGA).

Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Melbourne. Head of Menopause Services and the Gynaecology Research Centre, The Women’s Hospital, Victoria.

Professor Hickey’s clinical and research interests are in menopause and she leads a large public menopause service with a focus on cancer patients. In the last few years she has led the team who developed the first Core Outcome Set for menopause (COMMA) and is now leading an international Priority Setting Partnership in menopause (MAPS). She is the “clinical expert” for the NICE guidelines on menopause and in 2024 led the Lancet Clinical Series on Menopause. She has a strong commitment to evidence-based medicine and is an Editor for the Cochrane Collaboration.

Associate Professor Emma Allanson is a gynaecologic oncologist and the head of Department at King Edward Memorial Hospital in Perth, Western Australia. She completed her gynaecologic oncology fellowship in Australia, in addition to a research fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and an editorial fellowship with the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer. She has a PhD in women's health in low- and middle-income countries, is an associate editor for the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical oncology, is the research lead for the ASGO Western Pacific Liaison group travelling regularly to Vanuatu and Tonga, and her research interests are focused on survivorship and the prevention and treatment of cervical cancer.

Heather was appointed in 1997 as the first national manager of kConFab. kConFab is a consortium of approximately 300 geneticists, clinicians, surgeons, genetic counsellors, psychosocial researchers, pathologists and epidemiologists from Australia and New Zealand who believe the causes and consequences of familial predisposition to breast, ovarian and prostate cancer can be understood only by a concerted basic and clinical research effort. Under her management she has delivered to 212 approved projects which has resulted in 475 high ranking kConFab publications.

kConFab has united geographically and academically diverse clinicians into a body that has developed best practice protocols for collection of data and materials for research into familial cancer, providing Family Cancer Clinics (FCCs) with evidence-based guidelines for many of their clinical activities. This has resulted in better coordinated clinical care of women and men with familial cancer and their families, informed by the latest research results and integrated community involvement with familial cancer research, provided an “early warning” of new findings that are communicated to the national kConFab membership to help translate these findings to the clinic. She worked closely for 26 years with the community, peak organizations, education programs and media to raise funds and disseminate research updates to the community.

Professor Macrae conducted foundation studies on bleeding from colorectal cancers underpinning the screening approach which became the Australian National Bowel Cancer Screening Program; he lead randomized controlled interventional trials of diet, and separately, aspirin in Lynch Syndrome providing strong evidence for prevention of bowel cancer, now in world guidelines. He also lead the AusFAP RCT of a butyrylated starch preparation to prevent adenomas and cancer in FAP. Through his leadership in the International Society for Gastrointestinal Hereditary Tumours and the Human Variome Project, he initiated processes of curation of DNA variation in genes responsible for bowel cancer, which have been adopted by the US National Institutes of Health

Professor Macrae participates weekly in the Familial Cancer Clinics at the Royal Melbourne Hospital as a gastroenterology organ specialist. He was awarded an Order of Australia (AO) for his career in genetics and genomics.

A/Prof Kylie Snook is a leading Sydney based Breast Surgeon caring for patients through the Mater Hospital, North Shore Private and Hornsby Ku-ring-gai hospitals. She is a Visiting Medical Officer at BreastScreen NSW, has a clinical appointment with the University of Sydney and has been an investigator on multiple clinical trials. She is a council member of BreastSurgANZ, and the Head of Department for Breast & Endocrine Surgery at the Mater Hospital.

A/Prof Snook enjoys teaching at all levels as well as consumer engagement and advocacy. She is passionate about improving access to breast reconstruction and the management of individuals and families with high risk breast cancer genetic mutations. She has been a long term supporter of Inherited Cancers Australia. 

Catherine Shannon is a Senior Medical Oncologist at Mater Cancer Care Centre, a member of Mater Research's Clinical Research group and a Senior Lecturer University of Queensland. She is the principal or co-investigator on a number of phase I, II and III clinical trials in breast, gynaecological and lung cancer. She is currently on the Executive Committee of the Medical Oncology Group of Australia and the medial oncology consultant for the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre. Dr Shannon has a special interest in the management of breast cancer in young women and pregnant women and has published in this field.